This type of book is not normally my cup of tea, I am more of a romance type of gal, but the story was good and it was a very easy book to get through. The story begins in 1851 in Tiger Rock, a small farming town in southern China. Our character Wong Ming-Chung is a young boy, and his family is suffereing to make ends meat. His uncle Precious Stone has decided to travel to America to work in the mines because gold has been found! His family thinks that he is crazy, and that he would never make it through the journey, however, he does and ends up sending money back home to his family. However, the money comes with some consequence, he wants them to send Wong Ming to American to live with him. The family is outraged, but feel they owe Presious Stone this much, and agree to send their youngest son. The journey to American is tough, Wong Ming sees lots of disease and death, but he mnages to make a few friends and survives the journey. Once in Amercia he met up with his uncle to begin mining. Wong Ming had to grow up very quickly, and without telling to much about the book, he felt racism from the American people and the Chinese were blamed for a lot of the problems they were having with overcrowding, as well as economics. The Americans wanted the Chinese out, and they wanted their gold for themselves which sends Wong Ming on a dangerous journey. This story's theme goes very well for this age group because it teaches them that greed will do nothing, but bring bad things to your life. It is a very powerful emotion, and most of the time causes you to do things that you regret later, or causes your downfall. Even though Wong Ming ends up back in China, he learned a very valuable lesson at a young age. He learned that people are not always nice, and that to some people survivual will come at any cost!
Other Books By Laurence Yep:
Mountain Light
The Traitor
Sweetwater
The Ghost Fox
Tongues of Jade
The Butterfly Boy
Sea Glass
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